a. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to vehicle door latches and related components, and, more particularly, to an anti-chucking striker for providing resistance to chucking in a plurality of directions.
b. Description of Related Art
As is known in the art, vehicle side doors are susceptible to movement when the vehicle is riding over rough surfaces. This movement can result in noise, referred to as chucking, from the latch area. As readily evident to those skilled in the art, this noise would be objectionable from a design and customer satisfaction viewpoint.
Previous solutions have tried to utilize the striker itself to provide resistance to chucking in the vertical direction while a rubber wedge can provide resistance to chucking in the horizontal direction. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,389 to Arabia, Jr. discloses a vehicle door latch with stiffness adjustment. As shown in FIG. 2, Arabia, Jr. discloses a door latch with an overslam bumper including an elastomeric portion for engaging the striker, located at the rearward end. Elastomeric bumper 25 is L-shaped and fits into slot 27, with bumper 25 nearly extending the width of fishmouth slot 74 with one end near back plate 16 and the other near fork bolt 30. Bumper 25 is preloaded by a stiffness adjustment mechanism which includes an expandable bushing 22, a nut 23 and an adjustment screw 122.
While bumper 25 of Arabia, Jr. biases the striker in a predetermined position, it is nevertheless complex in design and operation based on its operation in conjunction with expandable bushing 22, nut 23 and adjustment screw 122. Moreover, bumper 25 also serves the limited purpose of biasing the striker, and no other apparent operational benefits.
Yet further, U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,872 to Kalargeros as illustrated in FIG. 1 thereof, discloses a latch mechanism including latch bolt 12 with overmold 18 composed of elastomeric material, defining first, second and third buffers, 20, 22, and 24 respectively. Third buffer 24 hits impact surface 38 of pawl 13 and displaces it. The noise of the impact between third buffer 24 and surface 38 is reduced due to elastomeric overmold 18.
Thus whereas Kalargeros discloses an overmold 18 for reducing impact noise, it does not address chucking related movement or noise from the latch area.
Accordingly, there remains a need for an anti-chucking device for providing resistance to chucking in a plurality of direction. There also remains a need for an anti-chucking device which is usable with existing latch/striker designs, and which is economical to manufacture, install and service.